Our entire life
Was like a spell of beauty and despair
This old delusion
Hectic with our own selfish thirst
Hailing from Geneva, Switzerland, Future Faces arose from the local DIY scene, forging their name in the late 2010s. This cold wave quartet—Alex Muller, Matthieu Baumann, Ludovic Lacroix, and Léa Martinez—fashions a sound drawn from the lush palette of post-punk’s steel-edged legacy and the iciness of modern coldwave and darkwave. Their music hovers between ethereal stretches of reverberation and driving industrial undercurrents, capturing an era’s essence while reshaping it for the present. Since appearing in 2017, they have pursued their vision through three albums and performances known for intensity. Influences as disparate as contemporary art, romanticism, Dadaism, and constructivism swirl through their songs, a cry of defiance ringing against social and emotional storms.
Their second album, Memoria, inhabits a synthetic landscape, shifting and probing the effects of past deeds on today and tomorrow. This work relies on delicate balances, blending sparse, desolate passages with crescendos that surge and subside like distant tides. Each track invites reflection upon transience, truth, and time’s relentless pace. It stands as a stark reminder that all things must pass, leaving echoes of sound in silence.
The album begins with Ask The Grime, a track steeped in eerie synths and stark reflections. It examines the futility of human desire, where beauty and despair entwine in life’s fragile spell. Themes of failure, fleeting time, and the weight of grief unfold, urging listeners to savour fleeting moments while wrestling with the inevitability of loss and the scars of violence.
Neon Outlines follows, precise and electric, teetering between nostalgia’s ache and the urgent demands of the present. Its notes feel like whispers from forgotten corners, each pause plunging into the depths of memory. Echoing the spirit of She Past Away and The Cure, it sharpens post-punk’s angular edges with a spectral modernity. Synths murmur secrets, while vocals rise like echoes from a distant past, entwining love and loss, passion and time’s unyielding march.
I kiedyś ja (feat. Patrycja Proniewska) marks a bold leap for Future Faces, diving into the murky depths of memory and estrangement. Patrycja Proniewska, the ethereal voice of Belgrado and Fatamorgana, envelops the track in a spectral haze with her evocative Polish vocals, evoking a longing for a bygone era untouched by pain. The song contrasts past serenity with present disarray, questioning whether that untroubled state can ever be reclaimed. With echoes of Kontravoid, and The Soft Moon, the track merges synthetic textures with raw emotion. Each beat reverberates like a distant memory.
The Weaker We Are strides onto the dancefloor with a bold disco beat, undercut by the ache of minor chords. Its crooning vocals and plaintive guitar nod to New Order, layering urgency over rhythm. The song urges defiance against life’s fleeting nature, demanding fire over apathy. Generational struggles and inner turmoil burn through its core, celebrating resilience and the force of raw emotion. Moments turns its gaze to love’s gentle evolution, from the bright ignition of new passion to the enduring glow of lifelong connection. It savors shared joys—bike rides, music, laughter in the grass—painting an intimate tableau of tenderness. As time passes, love matures, traced in silvered hair and the warmth of shared memories. Over a minimalist backbeat reminiscent of Kraftwerk and Radiohead alke, the song embraces the quiet beauty of growth and the sweet surrender to life’s flow, finding freedom in love’s enduring rhythm.
SUN (feat. Delia Meshlir) glows with the golden warmth of memory, conjuring sunlit days and stolen touches wrapped in the intensity of unguarded passion. The track revels in the fearless joys of fleeting connections, celebrating love’s transient beauty. Meshlir’s voice, smooth and rich, brushes against the angular chill of icy synths, creating a stirring contrast. As youth fades into the quiet shadows of time, the song gently urges the listener to treasure those moments, to hold close the joy of having truly lived and deeply loved.
Spectre, with its baroque synthwave procession and swooning vocal delivery, dances in with the shadows and casts a starker light, reflecting on lives spent moving restlessly through unreturnable places, collecting scars from loves lost and years weathered. It captures the pandemonium of existence—the chaos of regret, self-reproach, and unmet yearning. Yet, amid the turmoil and anguish, there is a defiant pulse: the desire to persist, to seek meaning, and to embrace life’s relentless struggle, even when burdened by its weight.
In Between unfolds as a largely instrumental piece, its sparse, poetic interlude cutting through with quiet poignancy. Echoing the eerie elegance of The Horrors, the track captures the ache of fleeting moments—brief flashes of connection lost to the chaos. It lingers in the bittersweet realization that these glimmers have faded, leaving only a hollow, unspoken longing in their wake.
With an ominous intro, Tempest surges in with cinematic beats, with icy vocals dripping with the turmoil of inner conflict, a battle fought against regret and the unrelenting weight of the past. The tide rises steadily, carrying anguish and affliction like debris through restless waters. Yet amid this struggle, there’s a glimmer—a yearning for renewal, a fragile hope to move beyond the burden. Fading sunsets and shifting tides mirror the slow release of sorrow, a bittersweet surrender to time’s pull. Through its ebb and flow, the song hints at resilience, the quiet strength found in letting go and stepping forward.
Ultraviolet, with its throbbing Bladerunner-like synths, catchy guitar riff, and Dave Gahan-like croon, burns with rebellion, its core a clash between the fire of anger and the cold of indifference. Power courses through its veins, mingling with the illusions and upheaval that demand destruction to rebuild anew. Bold and unyielding, the track revels in defiance, celebrating the resilience of reclaiming lost strength. From chaos rises a fragile hope—renewal glimmers, and the promise of joy echoes in the determination to dance once more.
The album’s final breath, A Man Forbid, grapples with ambition’s weight and the pull of darker desires. It seethes with inner conflict, navigating the tightrope between submission and resistance. The track questions fear and challenges the limits imposed by discomfort and doubt. Yet, beneath the turbulence lies an unshakable resolve—to live fiercely, to pursue identity and purpose with unrelenting passion. In its defiance, the song finds strength, embracing the unknown and carrying the listener boldly forward.
Memoria is out now via Roosevelt Records / Fer de Lance / Throatruiner. Listen to the album below and order here.
Follow Future Faces:
Or via: